A self-assembly of an active tumor-targeted photothermal agent for enhanced anti-inflammatory cancer therapy

Hafnium carbide nanoparticles for noninflammatory photothermal cancer therapy

Photothermal therapy (PTT) effectively suppresses tumor growth with high selectivity. Nevertheless, PTT may cause an inflammatory response that leads to tumor recurrence and treatment resistance, which are the main disadvantages of PTT. Herein, monodisperse hafnium carbide nanoparticles (HfC NPs) were successfully prepared for noninflammatory PTT of cancer. HfC NPs possessed satisfactory near-infrared (NIR) absorption, good photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE, 36.8 %) and photothermal stability. Furthermore, holding large surface areas and intrinsic redox-active sites, HfC NPs exhibited excellent anti-inflammatory properties due to their antioxidant and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymatic activities. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that HfC NPs converted light energy into heat energy upon NIR laser irradiation to kill cancer cells through PTT and achieved a better therapeutic effect by anti-inflammatory effects after PTT. This work highlights that multifunctional HfC NPs can be applied in noninflammatory PTT with outstanding safety and efficacy.

Anti-inflammatory strategies for photothermal therapy of cancer

High temperature generated by photothermal therapy (PTT) can trigger an inflammatory response at the tumor site, which not only limits the efficacy of PTT but also increases the risk of tumor metastasis and recurrence. In light of the current limitations posed by inflammation in PTT, several studies have revealed that inhibiting PTT-induced inflammation can significantly improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. In this review, we summarize the research progress made in combining anti-inflammatory strategies to enhance the effectiveness of PTT. The goal is to offer valuable insights for developing better-designed photothermal agents in clinical cancer therapy.

An active tumor-targeting organic photochemotherapy agent with naproxen for enhanced cancer therapy

An active tumor-targeting organic photochemotherapy agent via the combination of a an organic photothermal material and a naproxen prodrug was developed to precisely kill cancer cells and suppress the inflammatory response induced by cell necrosis; in vitro, and in vivo experiments illustrated its low cytotoxicity and excellent tumor inhibitory effect.

Click Synthesis Enabled Sulfur Atom Strategy for Polymerization-Enhanced and Two-Photon Photosensitization

Facile tailoring of photosensitizers (PSs) with advanced and synergetic properties is highly expected to broaden and deepen photodynamic therapy (PDT) applications. Herein, a catalyst-free thiol-yne click reaction was employed to develop the sulfur atom-based PSs by using the in situ formed sulfur "heavy atom effect" to enhance the intersystem crossing (ISC), while such an effect can be remarkably magnified by the polymerization. The introduction of a tetraphenylpyrazine-based aggregation-induced emission (AIE) unit was also advantageous in PS design by suppressing their non-radiative decay to facilitate the ISC in the aggregated state. Besides, the resulting sulfur atom electron donor, together with a double-bond π bridge and AIE electron acceptor, created a donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) molecular system with good two-photon excitation properties. Combined with the high singlet oxygen generation efficiency, the fabricated polymer nanoparticles exhibited an excellent in vitro two-photon-excited PDT towards cancer cells, therefore possessing a huge potential for the deep-tissue disease therapy.

A versatile nanoagent for multimodal imaging-guided photothermal and anti-inflammatory combination cancer therapy

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has drawn great attention in cancer treatment because of its minimal invasiveness and high spatiotemporal selectivity, but it still encounters severe obstacles like heat-resistance, metastasis and recurrence. A key reason for the treatment failure is the highly inflammatory tumor microenvironment caused by hyperthermia. A simultaneous anti-inflammatory therapy alongside the PTT has great potential for overcoming the drawbacks of PTT; however, it has been less reported and further study is urgently needed. In addition, as many inorganic photothermal agents have no inherent imaging capability, diagnostic strategies should be introduced to help identify cancerous lesions and find the best treatment time period for PTT. Herein, we developed a versatile theranostic nanoagent (named T-lipos-CPAuNCs) for synergistic multimodal imaging-guided photothermal/anti-inflammatory cancer therapy. Perfluorohexane (PFH) loaded AuNCs and the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib were encapsulated into the tumor-targeting cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp (cRGD) peptide modified liposomes to form T-lipos-CPAuNCs. The T-lipos-CPAuNCs accumulated in the tumor tissue and selectively targeted the cancer cells, and converted photo to thermal energy under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation to kill the cancer cells by PTT. The high temperature further accelerated the release of celecoxib to exert an anti-inflammatory effect, while on the other hand led to liquid to gas phase transition of PFH to facilitate ultrasound (US) imaging. The T-lipos-CPAuNCs also exhibited photoacoustic (PA) imaging capability. In vitro and in vivo experiments established that under the guidance of multimodal imaging, T-lipos-CPAuNCs significantly suppressed the tumor growth by PTT and prevented tumor metastasis with non-apparent tumor inflammation. The developed theranostic nanosystem (T-lipos-CPAuNCs) shows great potential for PA/US multimodal imaging guided photothermal/anti-inflammatory combination cancer therapy.

Polyoxometalate-Based Nanomaterials Toward Efficient Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

As an emerging class of inorganic metal oxides, organically functionalized polyoxometalates (POMs) or POM-based nanohybrids have been demonstrated promising potential for the inhibition of various cancer types by the virtue of their diversity in structures and significantly reduced toxicity. This contribution summarizes the latest achievement of POM-based nanomaterials in cancer diagnosis and various therapeutics to put forward our fundamental viewpoints on the design principles of modified POMs based on their application. In addition, major challenges and perspectives in this field are also discussed. We expect that this review will provide a valuable and systematic reference for the further development of POM-based nanomaterials.

Dual-targeted photothermal agents for enhanced cancer therapy

Photothermal therapy, in which light is converted into heat and triggers local hyperthermia to ablate tumors, presents an inherently specific and noninvasive treatment for tumor tissues. In this area, the development of efficient photothermal agents (PTAs) has always been a central topic. Although many efforts have been made on the investigation of novel molecular architectures and photothermal materials over the past decades, PTAs can cause severe damage to normal tissues because of the poor tumor aggregate ability and high irradiation density. Recently, dual-targeted photothermal agents (DTPTAs) provide an attractive strategy to overcome these problems and enhance cancer therapy. DTPTAs are functionalized with two classes of targeting units, including tumor environment targeting sites, tumor targeting sites and organelle targeting sites. In this perspective, typical targeted ligands and representative examples of photothermal therapeutic agents with dual-targeted properties are systematically summarized and recent advances using DTPTAs in tumor therapy are highlighted.